Sweet, Sweet Starhawk BETA News!

Boy, do I have some exciting news to share with all of our Warhawk fans today, but first, let me serve you all some delicious hors d’oeuvres de internets!

We were so happy with the response to Starhawk at PAX that the SCEA marketing machine leveled-up, cast Videozzaga and summoned a quick video of our Santa Monica sr. producer Harvard Bonin talking with people at the show in Seattle after they got hands-on with Starhawk!

Not only was it great to see people loving Starhawk at PAX, the team and I love seeing coverage and buzz about the game start to pick up speed. And with our announcement last week that early access keys for the Starhawk Public Beta will be included in Uncharted 3, well… things are now moving forward at ludicrous speed! It was great to read all the comments, tweets and Facebook posts from players who are just now getting introduced to Starhawk’s gameplay and universe and the LightBox Interactive team and I can’t wait to see all of you online in early 2012!

Purchasers of Uncharted 3 in Europe will be able to access the public beta in early 2012. Codes will be sent via email so make sure to keep an eye on the blog for further timing details.

But Dylan, you ask, what about now? Did you forget about us? What about all of the die-hard Warhawk fans who waited patiently for Starhawk to emerge from the shadowy nether regions of game development?

Five words: Private. Beta. Starting. In. November!

Let me explain.

Normally before a team releases a Public Beta for a game, the dev team goes through a phase known as the closed beta or “Private Beta.” This is when the dev team works very closely with a small group of colleagues from the publisher, quality assurance (QA) team, or very close friends to make sure things are solid, the gameplay is tuned, big bugs are squashed, etc. It’s all about a tight feedback loop and close interaction with the developer.

And we want the team here at LightBox Interactive to have that close communication with our Warhawk fans! Even as I write this blog post I’m still blown away that SCEA has approved this!

Ok, let’s break it down:

We’re going to be starting the Private Beta in November and we’ll be sending a bunch of our Warhawk players (European players too!!) special email invites with Starhawk Private Beta keys. We’re going to be letting players into the Private Beta in waves so we can manage the server load, watch the game balance analytics, etc. The order in which players are granted access is a dark art known only to Sith-IT-Managers and Gywn, Lord of Cinder. But, suffice it to say it’s a mix of your rank/level in Warhawk, your involvement in the Warhawk community, and a few other magical parameters.

So keep checking your email like a Hawk!

Like what I did there? ๐

SCEA has setup a secure forum where all the Warhawk players that are granted access into the Starhawk Private Beta will be able to talk directly with me, and some of our other team members here at LightBox Interactive. We’ll be posting our special PlayStation Network handles so you know when you’re playing with one of us online and we’ll be on VOIP in-game so you can talk directly to us if you want to!

We’re really looking for lots of feedback to help make sure Starhawk is as solid and tuned as possible. So we’ll be actively requesting comments on tuning changes and other game updates that we’ll be making to Starhawk throughout the Private Beta.

And this is a *key* part of the process because we are going to be validating our SkillScore player ranking system as well as weapon and Build & Battle game balance. Our new Hot-Fix system lets us really keep up with the demands of the community so we’ll be trying to push updates almost every day.

We’ll be going into more details on which features will be included in the Private Beta in the coming weeks, but for now, I hope our Warhawk player community is as excited about this opportunity as we are!!!

And for all the Warhawk players that are going to be helping us play Starhawk during the Private Beta, we have a special “gift” planned for all of you when Starhawk is officially released. Oh the
anticipation… THE ANTICIPATION!!!!! :-0

*deep breath*

Ok…what’s next? Oh yeah…

And lastly, no blog post would be complete without my obligatory mention of our website, www.StarhawkTheGame.com—so keep tabs on it because SCEA will be updating it with all the latest as things really start to get rolling for Starhawk!

Four words: I.Love.You.Guys. Seriously best news EVER! Really hope I get into this as I know what I will be drooling over in the next few months (disregarding dark souls and strangers wrath). Many <3's to you guys and many <3's to starhawk being so damn awesome!

I hope you get in too! But remember, if you don’t get into the private beta, you can always score yourself a Starhawk Public Beta key if you purchase Uncharted3!

And the keys that we are emailing our European players who purchase Uncharted 3 will get early exclusive early access to the Public Beta — and we have some really good features planned to be active during that part of the public beta.

While the exact details of how we’re deciding which Warhawk players get access will remain cloaked in mystery, I can tell you that the Platinum Trophy makes no difference. So you can breath a sigh of relief there

Awesome news ๐ I hope you take into account hours of play too. I was never very good at levelling up due to the requirements of some of the higher levels, but i put nearly 200 hours into Warhawk so hopefully that counts for something

Also, my birthday is in November so you should definitely let me in ๐ Thanks for doing this, Sony and Lightbox!

Oh, every time I hear any Starhawk news, I get unbearably excited. Chances are, I’ll be playing Warhawk again tonight because of this. Such great memories from it – it’s still my favourite multiplayer game, despite all the great alternatives, and I had bought my copy even before I had my own PS3. Once I got my own at the first price-cut in 2007, I spent most nights playing it. I’m hoping Starhawk will be just as compelling to me! At least I can definitely take the Uncharted 3 route in to play it pre-release.

Can’t wait to see more over the coming months! I hope you’re planning a cool Collector’s Edition! I still have that Warhawk/Headset combo box on my shelf, but I want a nice display piece this time!

I hope PLUS users get into the Public Beta as well as Uncharted3 purchasers. Will be a bit miffed if we don’t.

There’s too many good games coming out at the moment, without having these Betas to play it’s impossible to choose between them – already taking a gamble on Skyrim and Batman (they’re auto-purchases for me), but Uncharted/Battlefield/Starhawk are gonna have to fight it out for my money. I don’t need that many shooting games!

1400 hours of ranked game time. Reached the rank of general and obtained the platinum over the period of 18 months. Took up all my friend list at one stage, got me involved with the official playstation forums and my one and only clan to date. It was also my first adventure into online gaming. To say it holds an important place in my heart (gaming wise) is an understatement.

One of the absolutely best games that I saw at this year’s GamesCom and as a big Warhawk fan, I’m really, really looking forward to this bad boy. Clocked a few hundred hours but never got to General and thus never got the platinum though, I’m afraid. I hope I still get into the closed beta though and if not, I’ll be seeing you in 2012!

AWWWWW Man this is AWESOME! November is only days away! I would love with all my heart to be included in the closed beta, but even so, i’m seriously excited about all the Starhawk gossip that’s gonna be flying our way!!

P.s You guys should tune into StarhawkRADIO.com tonight for their second live show streamed from the StarhawkRADIO.com Website.Last weeks show was brilliant, The one and only, Harvard Bonin JR was on the show taking questions and giving answers face to face so to speak with fans who phoned or skyped in…Its a brilliant show and site run by a few top guys. MISS IT MISS OUT!! The show doesn’t kick off until around 1AM UK time but its Friday so who cares if you cant make the live show check back at StarhawkRADIO.com Well worth a look! ESPECIALY if your interested in representing your country at THE STARHAWK OLYMPICS later next year!

So who is classed as a Warhawk player? Anyone who has played the game or over a certain number of ours? Anyways im really looking forward to this and hope i enjoy it as much as the release of warhawk ๐

At #10, You do realise BETA’s aren’t demo’s right? They are solely for testing not for people to “dip in” and make them buy it. If that is your sole reason for doing so then wait for the demo’s to come out. /rant

#10, Unfortunately most Betas are indeed demo’s or old code, especially when the game is released within 2 weeks. There are however some that are true betas where feedback is used (Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, this).

Copy pasted from US blog. I will be very sad (within reason of course) if I wonโt get the email for private beta. Though I played Warhawk some what over 300 hours ranked plus unranked splitscreen which doesnโt match anywhere near the top players. But for me putting over 300 hours in a single game is good indicator how much I liked it because there ainโt even over 5 of those kinds of games and CoD ainโt one of them ;).

I know chances are this will never be taken into consideration, but I had to forcefully switch from my old account “cascio94″ (which was command marshall) to the newer one “hypertobby” (which is 1st leut.) so I’d have 210.000 pts by now according to myhawk. It’s just a desperate attempt but please take this into consideration, I haven’t been playing anything but warhawk over the past years!!! SIGH!!!!

No Thanks Starhawk Warhawk was an epic fail game to much into design hold design back make it more fun to play Starhawk is just a cheap copy of Dead Space Dead Space 2 mixed with Warhawk style another epic fail Starhawk will be.

what is it with plus subscribers,? everytime a beta is in the pipeline some people think cos they’ve paid ยฃ40 odd that there owned entry into it, and new psn games each month, .. well done for giving the original warhawk players 1st/exclusive access to the awsome looking starhawk beta.. i only hope this isn’t a scea post with the word europe thrown in to cover the backs due to a few recent paste jobs…on topic i only had my ps3 since late 09 so buying warhawk wasn’t really a feasable option, though i played the demo for a good few hours… lol.. is that enough to put me in the running,?…… only messing, give it to the guys who truly deserve it.. btw 300 to 1200 hours, good lord.. best of luck to all who want in on this.

Please… if you want to build a community for this game of loyal followers, consider REGIONALISED server/lobby systems… I’m not saying disallow players from different regions to play together; I’m asking for the option to do that AND the option to play with people in your region/country… because SOCOM 2 did it SO well and people built friendships from that game; indeed some people bought PS2s just to join their friends… SOCOM 4 has shown that if you don’t bother putting some thought into that side of things, the game, and the community, can fall apart… for a start, playing an online team-based game with people who don’t speak your language is REALLY irritating, but further than that, English-speaking Brits don’t necessarily enjoy playing with English-speaking Americans as much as they do playing together. We may speak the same language but culturally there are huge differences. On top of this, I am convinced that playing with people in your own country reduces the amount of lag drastically against playing with people globally. The lag may be minor but even milliseconds can be the difference between life and death. [tbc]

[continued]
Please don’t lump us all together like Zipper made the mistake of doing. SOCOM 2 should have been the benchmark for online multiplayer, and the lobby system worked SO well. SOCOM veterans are baffled as to why this blueprint has been strayed so far away from. PLEASE get the lobby/server system right.

@ 27.. i have to disagree Wolf. Starhawk has Warhawk all over it and as for Warhawk being a flop. its been 4 years and were still talking about it, you ,me and a massive Warhawk community…. Have you played Warhawk? its just i had a look on myhawk to see if you have actually played the game or if you were just trolling and couldn’t find ya……

mk3gsi wrote; @ 27.. i have to disagree Wolf. Starhawk has Warhawk all over it and as for Warhawk being a flop. its been 4 years and were still talking about it, you ,me and a massive Warhawk community…. Have you played Warhawk? its just i had a look on myhawk to see if you have actually played the game or if you were just trolling and couldn’t find ya……

@mk3gsi Yeah we all talk about the rubbish game ever built on playstation 3 even now called Warhawk reason we talk about Warhawk is because it was my second purchase game on playstation 3 and it totally sucked balls my first playstation 3 game was Call of Duty 3 so basically everyone talks about Warhawk crapyist game ever made scard us for life

can someone please stop people from copying the ‘whole’ of someones comment out in order to reply to it, and though i have Never seen this done before in the few years of using this blog i am fastly finding it very irksome, we are not goldfish, ie with the memory span of a few seconds etc… but the worst part of it is that i have yet to see this method used for anything other than ‘correcting’ a imagined wrong, if it was also used to pay someone a compliment ‘occasionally’ then fair enough, but as it stands it looks a tad intimidating… looking through certain peoples eyes,.. not my own..lol… but whoever the guy is he cannot be wrong as he ‘seems’ to know just about everything and know it better than us mere mortals…. on the off chance that this actually gets past moderation thnx.

Hi Dylan,
This is great, I’ve put many, many hours in Warhawk and still love it completely. So much even that I have won a total of four t-shirts playing Warhawk, and I have even won statue #194 :).
Now my problem is that 95% of all those many hours were made through playing split-screen online, hosting my own server (called Heineken-Beer).
I had many players returning to the server, most of the time hosting 16 player team games that were full in just minutes.
Because of the fact that I played mostly split-screen, I don’t have a lot of points registered.

Will I be able to get in on the SH beta even though my amount ranked hours are low?

HELLO!
I played a lot of Warhawk but mostly on un-ranked server because I was playing split-screen with my friends/family. Hope time on un-ranked servers also counts. I am checking Starhawk news Daily since beginning of May. This is the greatest news since then. I cannot wait until 2012, please tell me if I got in ~November Beta~. ๐

Over 99% of my time spent on TPS/FPS is Warhawk, its just amazing, hope that counts too.

thinking about warhawk, as i have said i only played the demo etc, but i wish that it would of been on the list of choices we got for the welcome back package, as i had all other offerings but mostly cos it really does look like a good game even now 4,?.. years on.. plus the new life it would of brought into the online community, i would ask for it to be a candidate for a plus game, but i think to many people would complain if it was, ie allready had it or what 4 year old game and so on, plus not that many would give it their time so it may be hard finding games etc,… still i cannot wait to play starhawk, am getting uncharted, (obviously,..lol.) so i will get in the beta,.. man there’s going to be a awful lot of beta players..

i’m trying to fall for the hype machine & get myself excited for this game but i can’t,i bought WARHAWK 3 times with each time making an excuse like i may like it if i play it longer…etc but i don’t & i will never do,sorry i wish i could follow the crowd on this one but if it plays anything like WARHAWK then its a massive NO from me.